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THE BOSTON SUNDAY CIXWE NOVEMBER 13, 1988
LETTER FROM ISRAEL
[ SIMPLY CANNOT BEAR TO WATCH' •
A youthful dn-anx Jades tn the face of Palestinian suffering
A PaleeUnlan woman waiting oaulde a prison
on tbe Gaza Strip to aee a relative
being held prlaoner la aaked by armed
Uracil aoldlera to leave.
By Yonll Yogev
REHOVOT. Israel - The Zionist dream captured me
youn£. Al 15. I was already imagining my future here: by 20.1 had left
my comfortable life as an American
college student to grow dates In the desert and think about raising sabras.
Israeli-born children.
I arrived at the end of March 1982
Scarcely two months later. Israel Invaded Lebanon, and my assumptions
about my adopted home, (he country
lo which I had "moved up" (the literal
meaning of the Hebrew phrase for emigrating to Israel) themselves came under attack.
This painful process of reconsideration continues up to this day. as I
watch with mounting dread while a
new coalition takes shape from the
Nov. 1 election. That coalition will likely be a terrifying marriage of hawks,
determined to use even greater force to
crush the Palestinian uprising, and religious fanatics, bent on turning Israel
Into a fundamentalist theocracy.
Like many American Jews. I usee!
lo Judge Israel by a wholly different
standard than other nations. US aggression In Central America was unforgivable: Israeli aggression against
Its neighbors anil tt. «•"• •i.nwceea
Palestinian population was another
matter altogether. Almost by definition. Israel was not an aggressor. Virtually any action It took was a Justifiable response to terrorism, part of a
heroic struggle for existence In the face
of overwhelming odds and hostile
neighbors. So obvious was It to me
that Israelis were the good guys that I
left my friends and family to become
one of them.
Try lo understand, then, what It
was like to arrive In what I saw as my
spiritual homeland only to find It cast
In the role of Invader rather than defender. American Jews were defiant,
defensive, excusing Ariel Sharon's Invasion, but some Israeli Jews were beginning, for the first time In the country's history, to resist military service
In Lebanon, to stage antiwar protests.
I remember working in the kibbutz
fields one day. hearing the planes overhead - too many planes. I thought.
Later that afternoon came the news of
the Invasion of Beirut. The steep I lost
during those hot August nights was
not only from worry about my friends
who were In uniform but from agonizing over my feelings about this country - now my country - whose uniform they wore. It tore me apart inside
to realize that Israel had killed more civilians in a single week than the Palestine Liberation Organization had
kl"M In a°ya»»».
Real terrorists existed, of course.
and they had been killing Israelis for a
long time. The borders were close, and
our security was. and remains, a genuine problem. But my friends were up
there doing the killing now. and I began to think not only about safety and
defense but also about the larger Issues of humanity and morality.
During and after that war. we
watched the growth of the militant
right, the movement of fundamentalist Jews. They built settlements In the
occupied territories and became a powerful political force In the Knesset, the
Israeli parliament. I watched as money
was poured Into their settlements,
highlighting the contrast with decaying Arab villages In the same Israeli-
controlled territories.
Israeli soldiers were still In Lebanon when my draft notice arrived. I
served most of my active duty In
Shomron.Jusl outside the Arab town
of Cenln. Although my servlM was relatively quiet. I felt the tension acutely
and am still haunted by the hatred
from Arab eyes when we drove
through Cenln. It hit me that I was
part of an occupying force
(V*fc)

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User has an obligation to determine copyright or other use restrictions prior to publication or distribution. Please contact the archives at reference@ajhsboston.org or 617-226-1245 for more information.

Language

English

Transcript

THE BOSTON SUNDAY CIXWE NOVEMBER 13, 1988
LETTER FROM ISRAEL
[ SIMPLY CANNOT BEAR TO WATCH' •
A youthful dn-anx Jades tn the face of Palestinian suffering
A PaleeUnlan woman waiting oaulde a prison
on tbe Gaza Strip to aee a relative
being held prlaoner la aaked by armed
Uracil aoldlera to leave.
By Yonll Yogev
REHOVOT. Israel - The Zionist dream captured me
youn£. Al 15. I was already imagining my future here: by 20.1 had left
my comfortable life as an American
college student to grow dates In the desert and think about raising sabras.
Israeli-born children.
I arrived at the end of March 1982
Scarcely two months later. Israel Invaded Lebanon, and my assumptions
about my adopted home, (he country
lo which I had "moved up" (the literal
meaning of the Hebrew phrase for emigrating to Israel) themselves came under attack.
This painful process of reconsideration continues up to this day. as I
watch with mounting dread while a
new coalition takes shape from the
Nov. 1 election. That coalition will likely be a terrifying marriage of hawks,
determined to use even greater force to
crush the Palestinian uprising, and religious fanatics, bent on turning Israel
Into a fundamentalist theocracy.
Like many American Jews. I usee!
lo Judge Israel by a wholly different
standard than other nations. US aggression In Central America was unforgivable: Israeli aggression against
Its neighbors anil tt. «•"• •i.nwceea
Palestinian population was another
matter altogether. Almost by definition. Israel was not an aggressor. Virtually any action It took was a Justifiable response to terrorism, part of a
heroic struggle for existence In the face
of overwhelming odds and hostile
neighbors. So obvious was It to me
that Israelis were the good guys that I
left my friends and family to become
one of them.
Try lo understand, then, what It
was like to arrive In what I saw as my
spiritual homeland only to find It cast
In the role of Invader rather than defender. American Jews were defiant,
defensive, excusing Ariel Sharon's Invasion, but some Israeli Jews were beginning, for the first time In the country's history, to resist military service
In Lebanon, to stage antiwar protests.
I remember working in the kibbutz
fields one day. hearing the planes overhead - too many planes. I thought.
Later that afternoon came the news of
the Invasion of Beirut. The steep I lost
during those hot August nights was
not only from worry about my friends
who were In uniform but from agonizing over my feelings about this country - now my country - whose uniform they wore. It tore me apart inside
to realize that Israel had killed more civilians in a single week than the Palestine Liberation Organization had
kl"M In a°ya»»».
Real terrorists existed, of course.
and they had been killing Israelis for a
long time. The borders were close, and
our security was. and remains, a genuine problem. But my friends were up
there doing the killing now. and I began to think not only about safety and
defense but also about the larger Issues of humanity and morality.
During and after that war. we
watched the growth of the militant
right, the movement of fundamentalist Jews. They built settlements In the
occupied territories and became a powerful political force In the Knesset, the
Israeli parliament. I watched as money
was poured Into their settlements,
highlighting the contrast with decaying Arab villages In the same Israeli-
controlled territories.
Israeli soldiers were still In Lebanon when my draft notice arrived. I
served most of my active duty In
Shomron.Jusl outside the Arab town
of Cenln. Although my servlM was relatively quiet. I felt the tension acutely
and am still haunted by the hatred
from Arab eyes when we drove
through Cenln. It hit me that I was
part of an occupying force
(V*fc)